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HARVARD  UNIVERSITY 


SEMITIC  MUSEUM 


DRESSES  DELIVERED  AT 
THE  FORMAL  OPENING  OF 
THE  MUSEUM  ON  THURSDAYl 
FEBRUARYS,  1903 


fasL'jam-i^xiiBKitis^.  rsi^ 


THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


THE   SEMITIC   MUSEUM 


HARYARI)   UNIVERSITY 


ADDRESSES    DELIVERED    AT    THE    FORMAL   OPENING    OF 
THE   MUSEUM    ON   THURSDAY,    FEBRUARY  5,   1903 


CAMBRIDGE 

lPubUsbe&  b^  tbe  'dniversitg 

11)03 


To  the  opening  exercises  wei'e  invited  relatives  and  friends  of  the 
donor  of  the  building,  all  contributors  to  the  Museum  collections, 
the  Overseers  and  the  Corporation  of  the  University,  the  members 
of  the  Faculty  of  Arts  and  Sciences  with  their  wives,  the  Divinity 
School  Faculty,  Semitic  instructors  in  the  leading  American  univer- 
sities, and  a  few  other  friends  of  learning.  About  two  himdred 
and  fifty  i)ersons  were  present.  Tlie  meeting  began  at  three 
o'clock,  and  was  held  in  the  large  lecture  room  of  the  Museum. 
It  was  followed  by  an  inspection  of  the  collections  and  by  refresh- 
ments, which  were  served  in  the  Palestinian  room. 

The  Semitic  Museum  is  on  Divinity  Avenue,  Cambridge,  and 
is  open  daily,  Sundays  excepted,   from  9  a.m.  till  5  p.m. 


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ADDRESSES 


PROFESSOR   D.   G.   LYON 

Mr.  President,  Honored  Founder  and  Benefactors,  Es- 
teemed Colleagues,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen,  Friends 
All  :  — 

We  have  come  together  to  celebrate  the  opening  of 
a  building,  the  completion  of  which  is  a  fulfilment  and  a 
prophecy.  A  Semitic  Museum  is  something  new.  In 
many  of  the  great  museums  of  the  world  are  to  be  found 
large  collections  coming  from  Semitic  lands,  but  this 
Museum  is  the  first  which  is  intended  to  bring  together 
only  such  objects  and  such  others  as  are  intimately  re- 
lated to  Semitic  history.  In  other  words,  our  Museum 
is  the  first  that  recognizes  the  fundamental  importance  of 
this  material.  And  well  it  may,  for  the  Semitic  peoples 
have  played  no  small  part  in  the  history  of  culture. 

In  their  somewhat  restricted  home  in  Southwest  Asia, 
some  of  them  ran  through  the  varied  stages  of  civilized 
life  before  the  art  of  writing  in  Europe  had  become 
known.  Among  them  flourished  great  rulers,  mighty 
builders,  wise  law-givers.     In  later  times  these  peoples 


3026225 


doul)tless  received  ideas  from  abroad,  but  they  ojinnot 
have  received  so  much  as  they  gave.  To  mention  a  few 
facts  familiar  to  all :  The  Alphabet  was  given  to  the 
world  by  Phoenicia,  and  Monotheism  by  Palestine,  two 
of  the  grandest  achievements  of  man.  Judaism,  Chris- 
tianity, and  Islam,  —  three  of  the  world's  greatest  reli- 
gions,—  the  Bible  and  the  Koran,  two  of  its  most 
influential   books,  arose  among  the  Semites. 

And  the  ideas  which  these  peoples  set  afloat  in  the 
past  have  sailed  beneficently  through  the  ages.  Without 
the  Alphabet,  and  Monotheism,  and  the  inspiring  litera- 
ture of  the  Bible,  and  the  contagious  example  of  Hebrew 
bards  and  seers,  and  the  Church,  there  might  have  been 
a  powerful  Western  civilization,  but  it  could  never  have 
been  the  civilization  which  we  know. 

It  would  seem,  then,  most  fit  that  we  should  have 
buildings  devoted  exclusively  to  teaching  the  known  and 
to  recovering  the  unknown  about  peoples  so  influential 
in  shaping  the  ideas  and  the  institutions  under  which 
we  live. 

And  there  is  need  of  such  collections,  "  lest  we 
forget "  ;  lest  in  the  storm  and  stress  of  to-day  we  for- 
get the  rock  whence  we  were  hewn.  So  vast  and  so 
absorbing  is  the  new  knowledge  ever  crowding  upon 
us  that  many  of  us  are  in  danger  of  forgetting  that 
highest  literary,  moral,  and  religious  knowledge,  which 
is  ever  old,  yet  ever  new.  This  building,  with  its  open 
doors  and  free  invitation,  will  stand  as  a  reminder. 


To  the  scholar  our  collections  will  furnish  the  means 
of  research,  whereby  the  borders  of  the  known  will 
be  still  further  advanced. 

To  the  student  of  Semitic  languages  and  history  at 
this  University,  they  will  serve  to  give  a  vividness  and 
a  most  hel})ful  sense  of  reality  to  what  is  learned  in 
books  and  lecture-rooms. 

And  there  is  scarcely  a  department  of  the  University 
which  may  not  find  here  material  illustrative  of  its  in- 
struction, preeminently  the  departments  of  History  and 
the  Fine  Arts  ;  but  also  Music,  Mathematics,  Engineer- 
ing, Biology,  Geology,  and  Anthropology.  Likewise 
the  Law  School  and  the  Divinity  School.  So  true  is 
this  of  the  latter  that  there  would  be  no  incongruity 
in  calling  this  a  Biblical  Museum.  The  only  real  ob- 
jection to  such  designation  is  that  Semitic  is  a  more 
comprehensive  term. 

To  this  community,  to  schools  and  classes  of  art,  to 
Sunday  Schools,  to  the  Churches,  of  all  shades  of  belief, 
to  the  readers  of  the  Bible  and  of  History,  this  Museum 
will  be  a  resort  and  an  aid  whose  educational  value  only 
time  can  su})ply  the  means  to  estimate.  And  probably 
no  feature  of  the  enterprise  has  given  to  its  promoters 
more  pleasure  than  its  anticipated  value  to  the  commu- 
nity and  to  the  public  at  large. 

An  incidental  result  of  this  education  of  the  community 
will  be  a  decrease  of  that  prejudice,  cruel  and  unjust, 
born    of  ignorance,    which  in    the    minds    of  some   still 


attaches  to  the  name  Semitic.  How  appropriate  that  an 
institution  of  such  benign  possibilities  should  have  its 
home  at  this  University,  which  to  its  two  mottoes, 
"Veritas,"  "  Christo  et  Ecclesiae,"  might  fairly  add  a 
third,  "Freedom."  Freedom  to  inquire,  to  learn,  to 
believe,  to  teach  ;  freedom  from  fear,  from  prejudice  ; 
freedom  for  all ;  freedom  in  the  truth  ;  freedom  in  devo- 
tion to  the  noblest  manhood,  and  in  service  to  the  highest 
interests  of  man. 

And  now  a  word  about  the  building  and  its  contents. 
The  structure  is  solid  and  substantial,  like  the  ideas  for 
which  it  stands.  On  the  ground  floor  are  the  depart- 
mental library,  and  three  lecture  rooms,  wnth  seats  for 
twenty,  fifty,  and  one  hundred  and  sixty-five  persons 
respectively.  On  the  floor  above  this  is  the  Curator's 
room  and  an  exhibition  room  about  eighty  by  fifty  feet. 
The  third  floor  has  two  rooms  of  about  the  same  size  as 
those  on  the  second. 

The  most  noticeable  feature  of  the  exhibition  room  on 
the  second  floor  is  the  large  number  of  plaster  casts 
from  Assyrian  bas-reliefs,  and  this  may  therefore  be 
called  the  Assyrian  Room.  It  includes  also  numerous 
casts  from  Babylonia  and  from  the  land  of  the  Hittites, 
and  many  hundreds  of  original  objects  from  Babylonia 
and  Assyria,  notably  inscribed  cuneiform  tablets  and 
cylinder  seals. 

The  large  room  on  the  third  floor  may  be  called  the 
Palestinian    Room,   because   the    objects    from    Palestine 


are  most  numerous  and  of  the  greatest  interest.  There 
are,  however,  certain  cases  or  })ortions  of  cases  devoted 
to  material,  originals  or  casts,  from  Egypt,  Persia, 
Arabia,  Phoenicia,  and  Syria. 

The  time  since  the  completion  of  the  building  has 
not  been  sufficient  for  placing  all  of  our  collections  on 
exhibition.  This  is  especially  the  case  with  some  seven 
hundred  coins  relating  to  Palestine,  and  about  as  many 
clay  tablets  from  Babylonia. 

The  same  plea  of  shortness  of  time  must  be  our  excuse 
for  any  deficiency  in  regard  to  the  descriptive  labels. 
The  doctrine,  attributed  to  various  administrators  of 
museums,  among  others  to  Professor  Louis  Agassiz,  that 
the  ideal  museum  is  a  good  collection  of  labels  illustrated 
by  specimens,  is  orthodox,  and  it  is  hoped  that  in  due 
time  ours  will  not  fall  short  in  this  particular.  To 
supply  in  part  the  lack  for  to-day,  we  have  the  assistance 
of  students  from  the  Department  and  from  the  Divinity 
School,  who  will  aid  the  guests  in  examining  the  con- 
tents of  the  various  cabinets. 

The  arrangement,  likewise,  is  in  many  instances  not 
final,  and  in  the  same  case  will  be  found  objects  which 
do  not  naturally  belong  together.  This  results  ft'om  the 
impossibility  of  knowing  just  what  cases  would  be  re- 
quired liefore  the  specimens  were  unj)acked  and  l)iought 
togethei'. 

Nor  must  it  be  supposed  that  all  our  specimens  are 
antiques,  or  meant  for  such.     Modern  life  in  Semitic  lands 


is  also  entitled  to  representation  in  a  Semitic  Museum, 
and  there  are  consequently  many  modern  objects,  espe- 
cially from  Palestine.  For  instance,  photographs  and 
models  of  the  mosque  which  now  occupies  the  site  of 
Solomon's  Temple  are  an  aid  to  the  study  of  the  site 
itself. 

As  to  the  quality  of  objects  to  be  found  in  a  Semitic 
Museum,  masterpieces  of  art  must  not  be  expected.  It 
is  in  literature  chiefly  that  the  Semites  have  been  great 
artists.  None  the  less  is  every  object,  ancient  or  mod- 
ern, precious  which  helps  us  to  understand  their  history, 
thought,  and  institutions.  Even  coarse  and  grotesque 
objects  may  speak  eloquently  to  him  who  has  ears  to 
hear. 

The  growth  of  our  collections  is  known  to  many  of 
you.  What  the  University  owned  of  Semitic  material 
beside  books  prior  to  1889  was  some  half-do/en  plaster 
casts  of  Assyrian  objects  acquired  by  purchase,  a  small 
lot  of  Babylonian  tablets  presented  by  a  friend  (Miss 
Ellen  Mason,  of  Boston),  and  a  larger  collection  given 
by  another  friend  (Hon.  Stephen  Salisbury,  of  Worces- 
ter). In  1881),  the  present  Chairman  of  the  Semitic 
Committee  gave  $10,000  for  the  purchase  of  material 
of  Semitic  origin,  and  this  gift  is  the  beginning  of  the 
Semitic  Museum.  For  the  considerable  number  of  ob- 
jects bought  with  this  money  the  Curator  of  the  Peabody 
Museum  (Professor  F.  W .  Putnam)  and  his  colleagues 
gave  us  a  temporary  home  in  a  galler}'  of  their  building. 


some  sixty  feet  square.  This  room  was  opened  to  the 
public  on  May  13,  1891,  and  there  the  original  collec- 
tions, with  many  subsequent  additions,  remained  until 
their  transfer  to  this  building  a  few  weeks  ago.  For 
their  long-continued  and  generous  hospitality,  the  Semitic 
Museum  must  ever  remain  under  obligation  to  Professor 
Putnam  and  his  associates. 

The  Museum  has  continued  to  grow  by  additional 
gifts  from  the  original  source  and  from  many  other 
friends,  and  only  a  few  years  had  elapsed  when  our  chief 
benefactor  provided  us  with  a  departmental  library,  for  a 
long  time  housed  in  one  of  the  lecture  rooms  of  Sever 
Hall,  —  now  happily  at  home  in  this  building. 

Meanwhile,  the  Museum  had  outgrown  the  room  which 
it  occupied,  and  the  need  of  a  building,  early  perceived, 
became  urgent,  a  building  in  which  to  concentrate  the 
instruction,  the  library,  and  the  collections. 

For  such  building  it  appeared  that  $50,000  would 
suffice,  of  which  our  Chairman  offered  to  provide  one 
half.  This  off"er  was  originally  made  early  in  the  last 
decade,  but  the  times  were  unfavorable  for  soliciting 
money.  It  was  last  made  four  years  ago,  January,  1899, 
with  the  condition  that  the  other  half  should  be  secured 
by  July  1st  of  that  year.  When  July  approached,  the 
work  was  not  complete,  and  our  friend  was  asked  if 
he  were  willing  to  extend  the  time.  To  this  he  replied 
negatively,  but  promised  to  give  the  entire  sum  of 
$50,000  if  the  other  donors  would  allow  their  contri- 


10 

butions,  nearly  $20,000,  to  be  used  tor  the  purchase  of 
additional  material.  All  consented  cheerfully,  and  thus 
we  were  far  better  equipped  than  we  had  hoped  to  be. 
Many  of  the  cabinets  on  the  top  floor  give  evidence  how 
a  part  of  this  money  has  been  expended,  and  most  of 
it  remains  for  future  purchases. 

When  the  plans  were  drawn  it  became  apparent  that 
$50,000  was  not  sufficient  for  a  suitable  luiildino-,  to  say 
nothing-  about  cases  and  furniture.  This  has  been  all 
happily  provided  by  our  good  friend,  and  we  have  a 
small  surplus  for  additional  cases. 

It  is  not  boasting  nor  exaggeration  to  say  that  the 
Semitic  Department  is  now,  with  its  building,  its  collec- 
tions, and  its  library,  one  of  the  best  equipped  in  the 
University.  For  this  achievement  our  benefactors,  one 
and  all,  are  entitled  to  profound  gratitude. 

We  have  thus  far  considered  achievement.  But 
achievement  is  not  all.  This  auspicious  day  is  not  only 
fulfilment,   it  is  also  a  prophecy. 

We  are  happy  to-day.  We  feel  like  felicitating  our- 
selves without  restraint.  But  while  we  rejoice  at  the 
progress  made,  we  cannot  shut  our  eyes  to  the  fact  that 
much  remains  to  be  done.  Our  building  is  not  an  end, 
but  a  means.  Its  completion  marks  but  a  milestone  in 
a  long  journey.  Do  what  we  may  to  make  happy  the 
passage  to  the  next  milestone,  we  shall  still  leave  much 
to  be  done  by  those  who  follow  us. 


11 

To  mention  the  most  obvious  task  that  lies  before  us : 
We  should  not  longer  delay,  in  emulation  of  the  univer- 
sities of  Berlin,  California,  and  Pennsylvania,  to  enter 
the  tield  of  exploration.  This  is  no  new  idea  to  some 
of  us,  but  in  my  own  mind  it  has  been  greatly  strength- 
ened by  my  recent  Oriental  travels  in  the  interest  of  the 
Museum.  It  is  exploration  in  Semitic  lands  which  gives 
new  material  for  research  into  the  Semitic  past.  Never 
were  the  times  more  auspicious,  never  the  revelations  of 
discovery  more  wonderful,  than  at  present.  Babylonia, 
Assyria,  Syria,  Palestine,  Egypt,  all  are  beckoning  us 
to  exploration.  What  we  need  is  an  endowment  or  a 
series  of  endowments  devoted  to  specified  fields  of  ex- 
cavation. In  other  directions,  too,  there  are  evident 
needs,  but  this  matter  of  exploration  is  the  first  to  which 
our  attention  should  be  given.  That  these  needs  will 
be  met  by  our  friends,  I  cannot  doubt. 

My  prophecy,  then,  is  this  :  That  soon  we  shall  be 
sending  our  sons  to  dig  for  our  Museum,  as  they  are 
doing  to-day  for  other  museums  ;  that  in  the  future,  not 
remote,  enlargement  Avill  be  necessary  to  accommodate 
additions  to  our  collections ;  that  the  building  itself,  the 
library,  and  exploration  will  be  properly  endowed ;  and 
that  thus  the  Museum  in  an  ever-increasing  degree  will 
prove  to  be  one  of  the  most  interesting  and  useful  ever 
established. 


12 


II 

PKOFESSOR   C.  E.  NORTON 

Mr.  President,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen  :  — 

The  gratitude  of  Harvard  College  is  due  in  full 
measure  to  its  munificent  benefactors  who  have  con- 
tributed to  the  erection  of  this  building  and  who  have 
supplied  the  Semitic  Department  with  the  means  of 
filling;    it    with    suitable    collections. 

There  is  no  place  in  the  world,  I  believe,  where 
such  a  Museum  would  be  more  appropriate  than  here, 
for  Harvard  College,  the  heart  of  the  University,  was 
the  first  public  institution  of  a  Commonwealth  which 
was  founded  on  the  rock  of  Semitic  doctrine.  It  was 
from  the  Hebrew  Scriptures  of  the  Old  Testament  that 
the  Puritan  fathers  of  New  England  derived  in  the 
main  not  only  their  spiritual  nurture  and  their  relig- 
ious creed,  but  also  the  informing  spirit  of  their  civil 
government  and  of  their  social  institutions.  As  was 
natural,  then,  the  College  was  established  on  a  Semitic 
basis  and  largely  as  a  nursery  of  Semitic  learning. 
The  first  code  of  Laws  and  Rules  governing  the  stu- 
dents, drawn  up  by  the  first  President  of  the  College, 
fixed  as  the  qualification  for  obtaining  the  first  scholastic 
degree  that  ' '  every  scholar  that  on  proof  is  found  able 
to  read  the  original  of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments 
into   the    Latin   tongue,   being   of  honest   life  and  con- 


13 

versation,  and  at  a  public  act  hath  the  approbation  of 
the  Overseers  and  President  of  the  College,  may  be 
invested  with  his  first  degree." 

In  the  first  one  hundred  and  fifty  years  of  the  exis- 
tence of  the  College  there  was  no  element  of  culture 
more  assiduously  cherished  or  more  important  in  the 
scheme  of  education  than  that  of  Semitic  learning. 

It  is  a  curious  and  notable  fact  that  for  forty  years 
in  the  eighteenth  century  we  had  a  Jewish  teacher  here 
whose  instruction  every  student,  except  the  Freshmen, 
was  required  to  follow  on  four  days  in  the  week,  and 
each  student  had  to  be  provided  with  a  Hebrew  Bible 
or  Psalter,  and  a  Hebrew  lexicon. 

If,  in  later  years,  the  study  of  Hebrew  has  fallen 
off,  and  if  the  influence  of  the  Hebrew  scriptures  in 
the  life  of  the  College  has  declined,  on  the  other  hand 
there  has  been  a  fuller  and  more  general  recognition 
of  the  immeasurable  debt  which  our  Western  civiliza- 
tion owes  to  the  Jewish  race  and  to  its  sacred  books, 
from  the  fact  that  they  have  contributed  to  it  the  law 
and  doctrine  of  Righteousness.  Whatever  else  the  Old 
Testament  may  be,  it  stands,  solitary  and  distinguished, 
as  a  document  of  Righteousness,  and  whether  by  the 
mouth  of  Law-giver  or  King  or  Priest,  or  Psalmist  or 
Prophet,  the  burden  of  its  teaching  is,  "In  the  way 
of  Righteousness,"  and  only  in  that  way,   "  is  life." 

This  is  the  great  Semitic  contribution  to  civilization. 
But  during  the  last  seventy  years  the  interest  in  other 


14 

branches  of  Semitic  learning  has  vastly  increased  with 
the  enormous  and  rapid  increase  of  knowledge  by  dis- 
covery and  investigation.  Syria,  Arabia,  and  Meso- 
potamia have  yielded  up  a  part  of  their  long  hidden 
treasures ;  Nineveh  and  Babylon  have  been  called  up 
from  their  tombs  to  tell  us  their  story,  and  reveal 
something  of  their  ancient  greatness.  But  only  a  begin- 
ning has  been  made  in  this  work.  The  future  will 
give  us  much  more.  And  so  with  this  Museum ;  it 
will  grow  from  year  to  year  in  interest  and  importance. 
And  as  its  collections  increase  may  they  not  only  add 
to  the  means  of  knowledge  in  the  University,  but  may 
they  help  to  quicken  and  strengthen  in  the  youth  who 
resort  hither  from  generation  to  generation  that  spirit 
which  found  its  highest  poetic  expression  in  the  Semi- 
tic literature  of  the  Hebrew  race  —  that  moral  spirit, 
which  is  the  inspiration  of  individual  and  of  national 
Righteousness. 

Ill 

DR.  CYRUS   ADLER 

Mr.  Chairman,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen:  — 

George  Brown  Goode,  the  most  distinguished  museum 
administrator  of  his  time,  declared  that  "the  degree  of 
civilization  to  which  any  nation,  city,  or  province  has 
attained  is  best  shown  by  the  character  of  its  public 
museums  and  the  liberality  with  which  they  are  main- 


15 

tained."  If  this  test  be  applied  to  Harvard  University, 
then  this  ancient  seat  of  learning  would  outrank  all  of 
its  parent  institutions  and  sister  institutions  in  foreign 
lands  and  at  home,  for  there  does  not  exist,  to  my 
knowledge,  any  single  set  of  university  museums  which 
equals  those  of  Cambridge  in  Massachusetts.  To  these 
foundations  with  which  the  names  of  Agassiz  and  Pea- 
body  are  associated  you  have  now  added  a  new  one  — 
unique  in  all  the  world  —  the  first  museum  exclusively 
devoted  to  Semitic  studies. 

It  is  coming  to  be  more  and  more  recognized  that 
in  everything  which  makes  for  the  higher  life  the  mod- 
ern man  derives  directly  from  a  few  groups  of  peoples 
that  lived  about  the  Mediterranean,  and  that  a  knowledge 
of  their  civilization  is  essential  to  an  understanding  of 
the  history  of  human  thought.  It  had  been  supposed 
for  a  long  time  that  religion  was  the  only  important 
product  of  the  Semitic  mind  and  soul,  and  the  study  of 
these  important  peoples  was  confined  to  the  theological 
faculty  or  pursued  from  the  })oint  of  view  of  the  divinity 
student,  thus  limiting  to  a  profession  what  should  have 
been  the  property  of  all  cultivated  men. 

But  as  Semitic  researches  advanced  through  the  dig- 
ging up  of  buried  cities  and  the  uncovering  of  hidden 
parchments,  it  was  seen  that  the  rudiments  of  the  sci- 
ences and  the  arts  as  well  were  to  be  found  in  Western 
Asia ;  that  not  only  must  the  student  of  the  Bible 
know    his    Semitic    history    and    archaeology,    but   that 


16 

every  educated  man  should  be  cognizant  of  the  fact 
that  when  he  used  his  alphabet,  he  was  going  back  to 
the  ancient  Phoenicians ;  that  when  he  examined  the 
face  of  his  watch,  with  its  combination  of  sixes  and 
tens,  he  was  employing  the  number  system  of  the 
ancient  Bal)ylonians ;  that  when  he  spoke  of  the  stars 
in  the  heavens  or  uttered  some  of  the  commonest  terms 
known  to  mathematical  and  chemical  sciences,  he  was 
speaking  in  the  language  of  mediaeval  Arabia ;  that 
when  he  prayed  to  his  God,  he  was  employing  the 
concept  handed  down  from  Palestine. 

These,  I  take  it,  are  the  ideas  which  the  Semitic 
museum  at  Harvard  is  designed  to  teach  in  objective 
form  to  your  great  body  of  students.  Its  eflectiveness 
on  this  side  will  be  in  proportion  as  correct  museum 
methods  prevail.  The  distinguished  head  of  the  Smith- 
sonian Institution,  Mr.  S.  P.  Langley,  has  inscribed 
over  the  entrance  to  one  of  its  rooms  the  words 
"Knowledge  begins  in  wonder,"  and  a  museum  is,  to 
be  paradoxical,  a  kindergarten  for  grown-up  persons. 
"An  efficient  educational  museum,"  said  Dr.  Goode, 
"may  be  described  as  a  collection  of  instructive  labels 
each  illustrated  by  a  well-selected  specimen."  To  these 
selected  specimens  there  must  always  be  added  the 
reserve  and  study  collections  to  stimulate  original  re- 
search after  the  interest  shall  have  been  aroused  and 
the  preparatory  training  necessary  for  successful  research 
shall  have  l)een  acquired. 


17 

Every  museum  should  have  three  functions  —  to  pre- 
serve, to  instruct,  and  to  add  to  the  sum  of  knowledge, 
—  record,  education,  research.  It  holds  within  itself 
for  its  Curator  the  great  joy  of  eternal  striving.  No 
museum  should  ever  be  completed,  for  "a  finished 
museum  is  a  dejid  museum,  and  a  dead  museum  is  a 
useless  museum." 

My  learned  friend.  Professor  Schechter,  who  has 
probably  recovered  more  ancient  manuscripts  than  any 
other  single  man,  told  me  a  story  recently  of  an  Eng- 
lish provincial  who  came  to  London  to  see  the  British 
Museum.  It  was  cleaning  day,  and  the  Museum  was 
closed  to  visitors.  The  Englishman  stormed  —  he  was 
a  British  tax-payer  and  yet  was  excluded  from  the 
National  collections.  A  polite  official  informed  him 
that  the  stalf  was  absent,  and  that  the  Museum  was 
not  open  to  the  public.  The  tax-payer  demanded  to 
know  where  the  members  of  the  staff  were,  and  the 
official  explained  in  despair  that  a  mummy  had  died 
and  that  as  a  mark  of  respect  the  curators  had  gone 
to  the  funeral.  The  apologetic  official  had  hit  upon  a 
profound  truth  —  it  is  the  business  of  inuseum  officials 
to  make  m.um'mies  live. 

It  is  a  little  over  twenty  years  since  the  study  of 
Hebrew  and  the  cognate  languages,  which  had  been,  in 
American  universities,  the  property  of  the  theological 
faculties,  was  made  a  portion  of  the  University  curri- 
culum in   the  academic   and    philosophical    courses.     It 


18 

is  even  a  shorter  period  —  if  I  may  be  allowed  a  per- 
sonal allusion  —  since  Professor  Lyon  and  I  began  to 
exchange  casts  of  small  Assyrian  objects  for  our 
respective  collections  in  Cambridge  and  Washington. 
Neither  of  us  dared  to  hope  that  before  a  generation 
should  pass  a  special  museum  would  have  been  erected 
and  filled  with  collections  to  further  the  studies  to 
which  we  were  devoted ;  and  I  rejoice  to-day  with  the 
professors  and  with  all  the  members  of  Harvard  Uni- 
versity, with  the  generous  donors  and  with  Semitic 
scholars  everywhere,  at  the  formal  opening  of  this 
Museum,  which  bears  within  itself  the  promise  of  the 
more  liberal  education  of  the  student  and  the  provision 
of  original  material  for  the  scholar  devoting  his  life 
to  the  increase  of  knowledge  in  the  important  fields 
of  Semitic  archaeology,  ethnology,  palaeography,  and 
philology. 

IV 

PROFESSOR  C.  H.  TOY 

A     LETTER     READ     BY     PROFESSOR    G.     F.     MoORE 

Unable,  to  my  regret,  to  be  present  at  the  formal 
opening  of  the  Semitic  Museum,  I  am  glad  to  send,  to 
the  University  and  to  all  persons  interested  in  Semitic 
studies,  congratulations  on  its  successful  completion ; 
and,  as  one  of  the  instructors  in  the  Semitic  Department, 
to  offer  hearty  thanks  to  all  those  who  have  contributed 
toward  its  construction  and  equipment. 


19 

To  the  University  the  Museum  will  stand,  among 
other  things,  for  the  unity  of  Semitic  genius  and  culture. 
The  Semitic  peoples,  it  is  true,  have  followed  diverse 
paths,  —  have,  indeed,  been  pioneers  in  diverse  lines. 
The  Phoenicians  were  the  earliest  commercial  middlemen 
or  universal  traders,  and  the  final  fashioners  of  our 
alphabetic  signs.  The  Assyrians  and  Babylonians  prac- 
tically began  that  process  of  empire-building  that  ended 
in  the  unification  of  the  Roman  world.  The  Jews  were 
the  first  to  make  monotheism  an  element  of  popular 
life,  and  they  composed  sacred  books  and  established 
institutions  that  form  the  basis  of  Western  Aryan  re- 
ligion. The  Arabians  created  a  religion  that  now  con- 
trols Western  Asia,  European  Turkey,  and  Northern 
Africa.  Here  are  certainly  difierences  of  historical 
achievement ;  yet  in  them  all  we  can  see  a  common 
element :  the  organization  of  everyday  life,  and,  more 
particularly,  of  commercial  and  religious  life.  Other 
things  have  been  done  by  other  peoples, — this  thing 
by  the  Semitic  people.  This  substantial  unity  justifies 
the  title  "  Semitic  Museum." 

This  Museum  will,  however,  it  is  to  be  hoped,  be 
only  one  among  many  in  the  University.  Alongside 
of  its  collections  will  stand  those  that  illustrate  the  civi- 
lizations of  Egypt,  India  and  Persia,  Greece  and  Rome, 
and  the  races  of  modern  Europe.  These  are  to  be 
studied,  each  for  itself,  and  then  all  of  them  together. 
It  will  be  found  that  they  have  all  contributed  to  our 


20 

modern  life.  The  history  of  the  ancient  Western  World 
has  been  described  as  a  series  of  actions  and  reactions 
between  the  Semites  and  the  Indo-Europeans,  and  this 
description  comes  very  near  the  truth.  Culture  then, 
as  now,  was  a  process  of  give  and  take.  In  this  process 
the  Semites  bore  themselves  bravely  and  with  honor, 
borrowing  freely  and  giving  as  freely.  It  is  not  worth 
while  to  ask  what  race  contributed  most  to  the  final 
result,  —  such  a  question  could  not  be  answered.  It  is 
enough  to  know  that  there  came  about  a  fusion  of  various 
elements,  not  one  of  which  could  be  dispensed  with  in 
the  make-up  of  modern  civilization.  For  certain  of 
these  elements  this  Museum  will  stand,  and,  in  conjunc- 
tion with  other  Museums,  will  aid  the  University  in  its 
task  of  bringing  its  students  into  sympathetic  touch  with 
the  total  intellectual  and  spiritual  life  of  the  world. 

For  this  function  the  Museum  is  already  well  prepared 
by  its  excellent  equipment ;  and  we  may  trust  that  it 
will  grow  steadily  from  year  to  year,  and  become  more 
and  more  a  powerful  exponent  of  Semitic  culture. 


Extracts  from  various  other  letters  were  read  by  Pro- 
fessor Moore.  One  of  these  letters  was  from  Professor 
Morris  Jastrow,  Jr.,  of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania, 
and  was  as  follows  :  — 

To  our  regrets  that  we  cannot  accept,  I  wish  to  add 
my  sincere  congratulations  to  you  and  to  the  promoters 
of  the   Museum    upon    the    success  which   has    crowned 


21 

your  efforts.  You  have  created  a  unique  institution, 
and  the  opening  of  the  Harvard  Semitic  Museum  marks, 
I  firmly  believe,  an  epoch  in  the  further  development  of 
Semitic  and  general  Oriental  studies  in  this  country. 
Amid  the  great  stir  created  by  the  sciences  that  stand 
in  close  and  direct  touch  with  the  needs  and  conditions 
of  daily  life,  we  are  apt  to  lose  sight  of  the  advances 
made  during  the  past  two  decades  in  the  promotion  of 
the  sciences  which  are  concerned  more  particularly  with 
the  past.  The  celebration  on  February  5th  will  serve 
to  call  attention  to  this  fact,  and  I  venture  to  think 
that  the  encouragement  of  the  less  practical  sciences  is 
the  safest  and  surest  index  of  a  country's  intellectual 
progress.  - 

V 

JACOB   H.   SCHIFF,   ESQ. 

Mr.  Chairman,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen  :  — 

Those  among  us  who  know  something  of  German 
literature  may  be  acquainted  with  Goethe's  beautiful 
saying:  "  Wohl  dem,  der  seiner  Ahnen  gern  gedenkt," 
' '  Happy  he  who  in  gladness  remembers  those  he  sprang 
from."  With  a  deep  attachment  to  my  race,  proud  of 
its  past  achievements,  sensible  of  its  continuing  respon- 
sibilities, pondering  over  its  development,  the  question 
has  at  times  presented  itself  to  me,  '  Where  did  the 
history  of  my  people  begin?'     And  the  Psalmist  made 


-n 

answer :  '  As  Israel  came  out  from  Egypt,  the  house 
of  Jacob  from  the  land  of  its  oppressors,  then  Judah 
entered  upon  its  holiness,  Israel  upon  its  conquest!' 

Thus  the  Psalmist.  Thus  the  ages  have  reechoed 
the  words  of  God  to  the  Patriarch  of  Ur  Chasdim : 
'  Through  thy  seed  shall  all  the  peoples  of  the  earth 
be  blessed.'  Forth  into  Egypt  the  Patriarch's  children 
emigrated,  alas,  into  bondage,  and  bondsmen  have  never 
made  history.  But  the  promise  of  God  faileth  not ; 
and  after  a  sojourn  in  Egypt  for  four  hundred  years 
Israel,  freed  upon  High  command,  took  possession  of 
the  land  promised  its  fathers.  For  thirteen  hundred 
years  the  Israelites  dwelt  in  Palestine,  until  their  long 
wandering,  their  great  world  mission,  began,  —  a  mis- 
sion not  yet,  as  is  evident,  ended. 

Unrolled  before  our  vista,  since  the  Patriarch's  days, 
lie  centuries  of  Semitic  history  and  development,  to 
which  the  Hebrew  has,  however,  by  no  means  been  the 
sole  even  if  he  has  been  the  largest  contributor.  Babylon, 
Assyria,  and  others  —  as  in  less  remote  times  the  fol- 
lowers of  Mohammed  —  have  had  their  important  share 
in  the  development  of  Semitic  civilization.  Indeed, 
the  history  and  activities  of  almost  all  of  the  various 
branches  of  what  is  generally  known  as  the  Semitic 
race  have  furnished  so  tempting  a  field  for  study  and 
research  that  scholar  and  layman  alike  have  for  decades 
been  vying  with  each  other  for  the  prized  treasures 
broufifht  forth  from  below  and  found  above  the  surface 


23 

in  the  countries  in  which  have  been  made  the  history 
and  displayed  the  activities  of  the  Semitic  peoples. 

Here  in  the  United  States  we  hav^e  perhaps  been 
somewhat  late,  but  the  interest  in  Semitic  study  and 
research  once  aroused,  the  competitive  work  has,  in  true 
American  spirit,  been  taken  energetically  in  hand  and 
pushed  forward  by  almost  every  important  seat  of 
science  and  study.  In  Harvard  University,  some  fifteen 
years  ago.  Professors  Lyon  and  Toy  set  themselves 
the  task  of  calling  forth  the  active  interest  of  a  larger 
circle  in  the  work  to  which  the  Semitic  Department 
under  their  charge  was  devoted.  Thus  my  own  interest 
became  engaged,  and  I  felt  that  the  cooperation  asked 
for  by  these  earnest  and  energetic  men  must  not  be 
withheld.  Truly  can  I  say  that  the  opportunity  then 
presented  has  become  to  me  a  source  of  the  deepest 
interest  and  of  continuous  gratification. 

Speaking  primarily  as  Chairman  of  the  Committee  on 
the  Semitic  Department,  it  is  but  proper  that  I  give 
expression  to  our  appreciation  and  to  our  gratitude 
for  the  encouragement,  as  well  as  for  the  substantial 
cooperation,  we  have  received  from  President  Eliot  and 
from  the  Corporation  of  Harvard  University;  they  have, 
indeed,  facilitated  in  every  way  the  carrying  out  of 
our  plans,  and  have  thus  made  possible  what  has  been 
accomplished.  No  less  are  we  indebted  to  the  Trustees 
of  the  Peabody  Museum  and  to  its  sympathetic  Curator, 
Professor  Putnam,  who  so  readily  opened  the  doors  of 


24 

their  own  building  thirteen  years  ago  to  make  room 
for  the  temporary  housing  of  the  collections  which  were 
then  started.  These  collections  have  now  been  trans- 
ferred to  this  their  permanent  home,  where,  as  is  our 
hope,  they  will  continue  to  grow,  to  become  an  efficient 
and  valuable  apparatus  for  aiding  in  the  development 
of  science,   knowledge,  and  enlightenment. 

Mr.  President,  we  now  place  this  building  and  its 
contents  in  the  keeping  of  Harvard  College.  We  com- 
mend it  to  the  fostering  care  not  only  of  yourself  and 
of  the  governing  bodies  of  this  great  University ;  but 
we  commend  it,  likewise,  to  the  good- will  of  all  who 
believe  that  the  gaining  of  a  thorough  knowledge  of 
the  civilization  of  those  who  have  been  before  us  means 
a  better  humanity  and  happier  conditions  for  ourselves, 
and  even  more  so  for  those  who  come  after  us,  and 
who  are  to  become  judges  and  recorders  of  our  own 
activities,  of  our  own  achievements,  and  of  our  own 
civilization. 


25 


VI 

PRESIDENT   C.   W.   ELIOT 

Mr.   Schiff  :  — 

I  accept  on  behalf  of  the  President  and  Fellows  of 
Harvard  College  this  great  and  interesting  gift,  and  I 
accept  it  in  the  spirit  in  which  you  offer  it.  I  accept 
it  as  the  storehouse  of  a  great  historical  past,  and  with 
the  confident  anticipation  that  for  centuries  to  come  it 
will  be  the  means  of  expounding  an  enlightening  and 
inspiring  progress  which  to  us  is  an  invisible  future. 
The  Curator  of  these  collections  has  set  before  you  the 
history  of  this  undertaking.  It  is  a  case  where  a  high 
pui-pose  has  been  gradually  developed.  The  develop- 
ment of  such  a  purpose  through  a  course  of  years, 
coming  at  last  to  a  happy  consummation,  is  always 
delightful  to  contemplate ;  it  is  always  a  subject  of 
congratulation  and  rejoicing. 

It  is  fourteen  years  ago  that  the  Visiting  Committees 
of  the  Harvard  Board  of  Overseers  were  reorganized 
and  enlarged,  and  multiplied  in  number ;  and  then  first 
in  this  Institution  a  Visiting  Committee  for  the  Semitic 
Languaffes  was  created.  There  were  three  members  of 
this  Committee  :  the  venerable  Andrew  Preston  Peabody 
was  the  Chairman:  the  second  member  was  Mr.  Schift'; 
and  the  third  was  Mr.  Salisbury.  Dr.  Peabody  gave 
to  this  Committee's  work  the  benediction  of  his  presence 


26 

till  his  death  in  1893.  Then  Mr.  Schift*  became  Chair- 
man of  the  Committee,  and  by  this  title  he  prefers  to 
be  addressed  to-day.  The  Committee  consisted  in  the 
year  1893  of  the  same  four  gentlemen  who  now  consti- 
tute it,  —  Mr.  Schifl'  as  Chairman,  Mr.  Stephen  Salis- 
bury, Mr.  George  Wigglesworth,  and  Mr.  Isidor  Straus. 
These  four  gentlemen  have  constituted  this  Committee 
for  ten  years,  and  they  have  steadily  pursued  the  objects 
which  to-day  we  see  fulfilled.  It  was,  however,  in  1899 
that  a  great  impetus  was  given  to  this  undertaking 
through  Mr.  SchiiTs  action  already  described  by  Pro- 
fessor Lyon ;  and  in  that  year  a  considerable  number 
of  persons  contributed  to  this  enterprise.  Among  those 
other  persons  were  found  numerous  habitual  givers  to 
Harvard  University, — types  of  the  New  England  pro- 
moters of  education.  This  cooperation  was  historically 
natural  and  just,  and  was  very  grateful  to  the  Committee 
and  particularly  to  its  Chairman. 

Professor  Norton  has  already  told  you  how  appro- 
priate a  place  this  University  is  for  the  establishment 
of  the  first  exclusively  Semitic  Museum.  Harvard 
College  was  a  highly  characteristic  Puritan  foundation. 
Its  early  teachers  and  governors,  and  the  ministers  of 
the  Puritan  Commonwealth,  were  all  Old  Testamen- 
tarians,  as  Professor  Norton  has  indicated.  Early  in 
the  second  century  of  our  foundation,  the  first  professor 
in  Harvard  University  was  appointed,  and  very  appro- 
priately he  was  a  Professor  of  Divinity.     His  name  was 


27 

Edward  Wigglesworth,  appointed  in  the  year  1721, 
eleven  years  after  his  graduation  as  a  Bachelor  of  Arts. 
This  first  professor  was  succeeded  by  his  son,  Edward 
Wigglesworth ;  and  these  two,  father  and  son,  covered 
seventy  years  with  their  combined  terms  of  service. 
Mr.  George  Wigglesworth,  a  member  of  the  present 
Visiting  Committee  for  Semitic  Languages,  is  a  direct 
descendant  of  these  two  professors ;  and  his  son  is  now 
a  member  of  Harvard  College.  You  see  how  appro- 
priate the  membership  of  this  Committee  has  been,  and 
how  it  illustrates  in  its  own  constitution  the  various 
interests  represented  in  this  building  and  its  collections  : 
they  are  Semitic  primarily,  but  they  are  also  intensely 
New  England.  Mr.  Oscar  S.  Straus,  in  his  book  on  the 
"  Origin  of  Republican  Government,"  has  clearly  shown 
how  the  Puritan  Commonwealth  was  modelled  on  the 
Jewish  commonwealth  under  the  Judges. 

Professor  Norton  has  justly  said  that  we  owe  to  the 
Semitic  race  the  conception  of  righteousness  as  a  national 
ideal  embodied  in  law.  This  ideal  characterizes  the  Old 
Testament,  —  and  indeed  both  Testaments.  There  is 
another  infinitely  precious  conception  which  we  owe  to 
the  same  race,  a  conception  expressed  more  fully  in  the 
New  Testament,  though  not  lacking  in  the  Old, — the 
purest  and  tenderest  conception  mankind  has  ever  won 
of  domestic  love  and  joy.  Therefore,  I  say,  we  owe  to 
these  Semitic  peoples  —  the  peoples  from  which  came 
the  three  greatest  religions  of  the  modern   world,  or  of 


28 


any  age  of  the  world  —  the  greatest  spiritual    concep- 
tions of  all  time. 

We  look  forward  to  a  continuous  and  enlarging  use- 
fulness for  this  Museum.      We  expect  it  to  contribute] 
year  by  year  and  century  by  century  to  the  education! 
and  training  of  American  youth  in  the  sublime  Semitic  j 
conceptions,   and  to  their  knowledge  of  the  sources  of! 
these  conceptions.     The  Museum,  as  has   already  been 
said,  is  necessarily  to  be  a  place  for  keeping  safe   sure 
records  of  the  history  of  a  great  race ;  but  we  may  be 
sure  that  it  will  also  prove  in  the  future  the  means  of 
inducting  our  youth   into  new  discoveries  greater  than 
any  we    now  imagine,  —  discoveries   as   to   the  genesis 
and    significance  of  our  biblical  records,  and   as  to  the 
development  of  the   fundamental    ideas    which  we   owe 
to  the  Semitic  peoples. 


